Yet another proof on Christians being insane..
People in 2009 falling for bs like this, can you imagine the folks around 2000 years back…

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METHUEN — Mary Jo Coady walked into her daughter’s bedroom Sunday afternoon and noticed a familiar image on the bottom of an iron sitting on the floor.

This is not the first time someone has believed they found Christ on an everyday object.

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Mythgirl lives on mythos — because it makes everything so much larger and more exciting than life.  Yesterday, for example, she channelled *HESTIA to clean the house and cook the feast.  Her guests arrived on time to be **TANTALIZED by the ***NECTAR and AMBROSIA she spread before them.   Today she’s still feeling pretty full, and enjoyed watching the sequel to Matrix where she realized that that movie is filled with characters from mythology — NIOBE, PERSEPHONE, and the mis-named MABINOGION.

* Goddess of the Hearth — We all channel her to some extent, depending on how cozy and grounded we are.

**Tantalus stole the immortal food and drink of the Gods, then served up his son to them.  His punishment?  To be TANTALIZED eternally — To nearly drown in water he can never drink, to sit at a table loaded with food that he can never eat.

*** AMBROSIA — food of the Gods — and NECTAR — sweet drink of the Gods.  Ambrosia is called the “food of the gods” for it is what makes them immortal, undying.

So NECTAR, literally overcoming death, NECTAR is literally a drink, a fluid. Of course both Nectar and Ambrosia are sweet and delicious but are, by definition, only enjoyed by Gods and the few HEROS, such as Hercules, who are permitted to “reach the gods.

The sweetness of immortality, IMPERISHABLE FAME, was strictly attainable by warriors in PIE culture, hence the warlike nature of the culture and the fact that the cultures that have descended from it devote their epics to the glorification of warrior heroes. But why are these heroes so eager to die heroically, so convinced that the formula “LOSE good fame – GAIN long life” is not worth the exchange (Watkins 176)?

Twitter users: Sign up for almost daily Archetype Alerts — Mythgirl, the Real Delphi Oracle.

Ariadne figures in Greek mythology and, although there seem to be many different versions of her story – perhaps I should say many different and apparently contradictory stories about her – I don’t feel any compunction about arbitrarily picking and choosing to make a story that pleases me. I might even be prone to making bits up out of nowhere…

Ariadne aperas en grekia mitaro. Ŝajnas ke estas multaj diversaj variaĵoj pri ŝia historio – eble mi diru ke estas multaj diversaj (kaj kontraŭdiraj) historioj pri ŝi. Tamen, mi ne sentas min iom ajn peka se mi proprelektas miterojn kaj historierojn por konstrui historion kiu plaĉas al mi mem. Eble mi eĉ emas elpensi erojn el nenie…

Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete. You’ve probably heard of him – bloke with a minotaur holed up in a labyrinth who had  innocent people shipped in every now and again to feed to the monster. I imagine that Ariadne did not much warm to him, even if he was her father.

One day Theseus (heroic chap, had a sword, quite strong, mother slept with Poseidon) came, having volunteered to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. He planned to try and kill the beast.

Cue Ariadne. She agreed to help him if he would take her with him off the island. She found out the way into the maze by sweet-talking the architect, Daedelus, and gave Theseus a ball of wool that he could use to find his way back out again.

This is the part I like… He ties the wool up outside the labyrinth, unwinds it as he goes, finds and kills the Minotaur and then follows the wool back out of the maze, rewinding it as he goes. Flushed with success, the two of them toddle back to Athens. Yay wool!

(Sadly she never made it to Athens but I hope she managed to knit Theseus some socks before they parted company. Killing a Minotaur is probably not all that easy.)

Ariadne estis filino de Reĝo Mino de Kreto. Verŝajne, vi aŭdis pri li – ulo kun Minotaŭro kaŝita en lia labirinto, kiu ŝipigis senpekajn junulojn de tempo al tempo por manĝigi al monstro. Mi suspektas, ke Ariadne ne multe varmiĝis al sia patro.

Unutage, Teseo (heroa ulo, posedinta glavon, relative forta, la patrino kuŝis kun Pozidono) venis, voluntulinte esti oferota al Minotaŭro. Li projektis provi mortigi la monstron.

Nu: Ariadne. Ŝi konsentis helpi Teseon, kondiĉigante ke poste li kunprenu ŝin kun li for la insulo. Do, ŝi eksciis kiel eniri la labirinton per dolĉe paroli kun ĝia arkitekto, Dedelo. Ankaŭ, ŝi donis al Teseo volvaĵon da fadeno (aŭ fadenfaskon) kiun li povus uzi por eliri la labirinton.

Jen mia favorata parto… Teseo ligas la fadenon ekster la labirinto, malvindas ĝin enirante, trovas kaj mortigas la Minotaŭron, kaj poste li sekvas la fadenon eksteren kaj revindas ĝin elirante. Ĝojega, la du gejunuloj migras kune al Ateno. Kia bonega fadeno!

(Malfeliĉe, Ariadne neniam alvenis al Ateno, sed mi esperas ke ŝi eblis triki ŝtrumpetoj por Teseo antaŭ ilia divido. Verŝajne, mortigi Minotaŭron ne tro facilas.)

I have seen a number of discussions on Pagan Internet forums about whether the Gods can travel. Suggesting that the old British Pagan Gods are tribal and therefore linked solely to a particular piece of land. The most obvious being Herne with Windsor forest and Ceridwen with Lake Bala in Wales.

Since I’ve been here in Australia I’ve been open to this idea. As we’ve travelled the land I’ve been receptive to the spiritual energy of this Singing Land, asking it to share itself with me, to tell me it’s stories. The voices I’ve heard have been beautiful, awesome, but also familiar.

When we stood in the Bush surrounded by huge gum trees I heard the voices of the land and

the Woodland Spirit. When I stood with my feet in the warm ocean the Ancestral Spirit of the Sea sung me its song. It has been an honour to hear them, and the thing that struck me is that, even so far from home, the Spirits of Woodland and Ocean had the same voices as Herne and Manawydan.

It’s obvious really. There is no seperation between the water I paddled in here in Australia and the English Channel other than the human construct of name – it is the same water. The land I walk upon is the same Earth merely

separated by that water mass. Of course the Woodland Spirit of Australia would feel like the Woodland Spirit of Britain.

As I spoke to the Bush and the Sea I heard familiar voices reply

to me. The same voices I speak to in the UK, just with different names. Our Pagan Gods don’t operate by our imposed regulations. They don’t need to make a 22 hour journey to Australia. All we need to do is be open and listen to the Land. So for me the discussion of whether the Gods travel is answered with a quite obvious ‘they dont need to, they live here already!’.

We keep hearing about the horrors of this biggest paedophile ring in the world, it’s happening all over the world, countless victims… but just like in Ireland, people ignore this, just like the police people treat priests like they are above the law… WHY, because of some myth about eternal life in luxury in hevn.
People who have imaginary friends… fucking master of the universe, everyone should know its insane; Faith heads refuse to face the facts, they take the fake bribes, fall for the “Nigerian” wager… sheesh
Soon the pope will stand on the balcony of his gold palace, with his gold staff and say: “sorry”, in many languages.. next thing we will see him welcomed all over the place again; Humans are insane.

The church says those days are over… and people will believe them

According to Joseph Campbell in “The Hero With A Thousand Faces”, no they are not.  “Throughout the inhabited world, in all times and under every circumstance, the myths of man have flourished; and they have been  living inspirations of whatever else may have appeared out of the activities of the human body and mind”.  I think that as a modern culture however, we as a society believe they are dead.  I think that we have chased the myths, the fairy tales, and legends out of our therapy offices for several reasons.  One is it is hard, if not impossible, to justify to insurance companies that the client is under the influence of a disorder of mythic proportions and the second reason is that we no longer understand the mythic figures and how they impact our unconscious.   The therapy room is the perfect place to explore these unconscious motivations if the client is willing and the therapist able.

How many victims worldwide.. also remember that the current pope played a huge role in the cover up.. imagine he is respected all over the world, welcomed.. can you imagine that.
Also remember this church is the creator of the Jebu$ myth.. yup, it’s all made up to control people.

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DUBLIN — The Roman Catholic Church in Dublin covered up decades of child abuse committed by priests because bishops wanted to protect the church’s reputation at the expense of victims, an expert commission reported Thursday after a three-year probe into previously secret church records.

Abuse victims said they welcomed publication of the probe into the mishandling of 1975-2004 child-abuse cases in the Dublin Archdiocese, home to a quarter of Ireland’s 4 million Catholics. But they said government and church leaders still had far to go to compensate for past wrongs.

The government said the investigation “shows clearly that a systemic, calculated perversion of power and trust was visited on helpless and innocent children in the archdiocese.”

“The perpetrators must continue to be brought to justice, and the people of Ireland must know that this can never happen again,” said the government, which also apologized for the state’s failure to hold church authorities accountable to the law.

This is the second major government-ordered report this year exploring how and why Irish authorities permitted widespread abuse of boys and girls at the hands of the Catholic Church throughout most of the 20th century, the gravest scandal in the history of independent Ireland.

Thursday’s 720-page report — delivered to the government in July — analyzes the cases of 46 priests against whom 320 complaints were filed. The 46 were selected from more than 150 Dublin priests implicated in molesting or raping boys and girls since 1940.

The report named 11 priests because they all were convicted of child abuse. But 33 others were referred to only by one-name aliases, and two others had their names blanked out after the Dublin High Court ruled that publication would prejudice their chances of receiving a fair criminal trial.

Investigators spent three years poring over 60,000 previously secret Dublin church files. They were handed over by Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, a veteran Vatican diplomat appointed to Dublin in 2004 with a brief to confront the scandal once and for all. Among the files were more than 5,500 that Martin’s predecessor, retired Cardinal Desmond Connell, tried to keep locked in the archbishop’s private vault.

The investigators, led by a judge and two lawyers, said they had no doubt that the 46 priests were responsible for abusing many more than 320 children.

“One priest admitted to sexually abusing over 100 children, while another accepted that he had abused on a fortnightly basis during the currency of his ministry which lasted for over 25 years,” they wrote.

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Yet another insane Christian for the imaginary tyrant in da sky aka gawd aka Jebu$

Crazy insane for the imaginary mass murderer in the air.

Via Atheistmedia

620 // November 25, 2009

Here in the mountains, I can see the stars so much more clearly than down in the city. Aren’t they beautiful?

From http://news.nationalgeographic.com/

It may be called Turkey Day, but the U.S. Thanksgiving Day is about more than just the bird. Learn about a holiday myth—the first “real” Thanksgiving wasn’t until the 1800s—and how we celebrate Thanksgiving dinner today.

Key to any Thanksgiving Day menu is a fat turkey and cranberry sauce.

Some 250 million turkeys were raised in the U.S. in 2009 for slaughter, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Those birds were worth about U.S. $4.5 billion.

About 46 million will end up on U.S. dinner tables this Thanksgiving. (See the Green Guide’s suggestions for having a greener—and more grateful—Thanksgiving.)

Minnesota is the United States’s top turkey-producing state, followed by North Carolina, Arkansas, Missouri, Virginia, and California.

These “big six” states produce two of every three U.S.-raised birds, according to data compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau.

U.S. farmers will also produce 709 million pounds of cranberries, which, like turkeys, are native to the Americas. The top producers are Wisconsin and Massachusetts.

The U.S. will also grow 1.8 billion pounds of sweet potatoes—many in North Carolina, California, and Mississippi—and produce 1.1 billion pounds of pumpkins.

Contrary to legend, the amount of the organic protein tryptophan in most turkeys isn’t responsible for drowsiness.

Instead scientists blame booze, the sheer caloric size of an average feast, or just plain old relaxing after stressful work schedules.

What Was on the First Thanksgiving Menu?

Little is known about the first Thanksgiving dinner in the Plimoth (also spelled Plymouth) Colony in October 1621, attended by some 50 English colonists and about 90 native Wampanoag men in what is now Massachusetts.

We do know that the Wampanoag killed five deer for the feast, and that the colonists shot wild fowl—which may have been geese, ducks, or turkey. Some form, or forms, of Indian corn were also served.

But Jennifer Monac, spokesperson for the living-history museum Plimoth Plantation said the feasters likely supplemented their venison and birds with fish, lobster, clams, nuts, and wheat flour, as well as vegetables such as pumpkin, squash, carrots, and peas.

If you want to eat like a Pilgrim yourself, try some of the Plimoth Plantation’s recipes, including stewed pompion (pumpkin) or traditional Wampanoag succotash.

Where Did Thanksgiving Come From?

American Indian peoples, Europeans, and other cultures around the world often celebrated the harvest season with feasts to offer thanks to higher powers for their sustenance and survival.

In 1541 Spaniard Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his troops celebrated a “Thanksgiving” while searching for New World gold in what is now the Texas Panhandle.

Later such feasts were held by French Huguenot colonists in present-day Jacksonville, Florida (1564), by English colonists and Abnaki Indians at Maine’s Kennebec River (1607), and in Jamestown, Virginia (1610), when the arrival of a food-laden ship ended a brutal famine.

But it’s the 1621 Plimoth Thanksgiving that’s linked to the birth of our modern holiday. The truth is the first “real” Thanksgiving happened two centuries later.

Everything we know about the three-day Plimoth gathering comes from a description in a letter wrote by Edward Winslow, leader of the Plimoth Colony, in 1621, Monac said.

It had been lost for 200 years and was rediscovered in the 1800s, she added.

In 1841 Boston publisher Alexander Young printed Winslow’s brief account of the feast and added his own twist, dubbing it the “First Thanksgiving.”

In Winslow’s “short letter, it was clear that [the 1621 feast] was not something that was supposed to be repeated again and again. It wasn’t even a Thanksgiving, which in the 17th century was a day of fasting. It was a harvest celebration.”

But after its mid-1800s century appearance, Young’s designation caught on—to say the least.

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving Day a national holiday in 1863. He was probably swayed in part by magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale—the author of the nursery rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”—who had suggested Thanksgiving become a holiday, historians say.

In 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt established the current date for observance, the fourth Thursday of November.

Thanksgiving Turkey-in-Waiting

Each year at least two lucky turkeys avoid the dinner table, thanks to a presidential pardon—a longstanding Washington tradition believed to have originated with U.S. President Harry Truman.

Since 1947 the National Turkey Federation has presented two live turkeys—and a ready-to-eat turkey—to the President, according to federation spokesperson Sherrie Rosenblatt.

“There are two birds,” Rosenblatt explained, “the presidential turkey and the vice presidential turkey, which is an alternate, in case the presidential turkey is unable to perform its duties.”

Those duties pretty much boil down to not biting the President during the photo opportunity with the press.

In 2008 the vice presidential bird, “Pumpkin,” stepped in for the appearance with President Bush after the presidential bird, “Pecan,” had fallen ill the night before.

After their presidential encounter, the birds share the same happy fate as Super Bowl winning quarterbacks.

“For the last five years,” Rosenblatt said, “They’ve gone to Disneyland”—living out their days at Big Thunder Ranch in the California theme park’s Frontierland.

Talking Turkey

Pilgrims were familiar with turkeys before they landed in the Americas.

That’s because early European explorers of the New World had returned to Europe with turkeys in tow after encountering them at American Indian settlements. Indians had domesticated the birds centuries before European contact.

A century later Ben Franklin famously made known his preference that the turkey, rather than the bald eagle, should be the official U.S. bird.

But Franklin might have been shocked when, by the 1930s, hunting had so decimated North American wild turkey populations that their numbers had dwindled to the tens of thousands from a peak of at least tens of millions.

Today, thanks to reintroduction efforts and hunting regulations, wild turkeys are back.

(Related: “Birder’s Journal: Giving Thanks for Wild Turkey Sightings.”

Some seven million wild turkeys are thriving across the U.S., and many of them have adapted easily to the suburbs.

Wild turkeys, Meleagris gallopavo, can run some 10 to 20 miles (16 to 32 kilometers) an hour and fly in bursts at 55 miles (89 kilometers) an hour. Domesticated turkeys can’t fly at all.

Pass the Pigskin

For many U.S. citizens, Thanksgiving without football is as unthinkable as the Fourth of July without fireworks.

NBC Radio broadcast the first national Thanksgiving Day game in 1934, when the Detroit Lions hosted the Chicago Bears.

Except for a respite during World War II, the Lions have played—usually badly—every Thanksgiving Day since.

Consumers Rejoice!

For those who love marching and music, turkey takes a backseat to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, originally called the Macy’s Christmas parade because it kicked off the shopping season.

The tradition began in 1924, when employees recruited animals from the Central Park Zoo to join the parade.

Helium-filled balloons made their debut in the parade in 1927 and, in the early years, were released above the city skyline with the promise of rewards for their finders.

The parade, first televised nationally in 1947, now draws some 44 million viewers—not counting the 3 million people who actually line the 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) Manhattan route.

Thanksgiving weekend also boasts the retail version of the Super Bowl—Black Friday, when massive sales and early opening times attract frugal shoppers.

The National Retail Federation reports that some 130 million Americans, give or take a few million each year, brave the crowds to shop on Black Friday or on the following weekend.

Planes, Trains, and (Lots of) Automobiles

It may seem like everyone in the U.S. is on the road on Thanksgiving Day, keeping you from your turkey and stuffing.

But just 33 million of about 308 million U.S. citizens drive more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from home on the holiday, according to the American Automobile Association.

Thanksgiving North of the Border

Cross-border travelers can celebrate Thanksgiving twice, because Canada celebrates its own Thanksgiving Day the second Monday in October.

As in the U.S., the event is sometimes linked to a historic feast with which it has no real ties—in this case explorer Martin Frobisher’s 1578 ceremony, which gave thanks for his safe arrival in what is now New Brunswick.

Canada’s Thanksgiving, established in 1879, was inspired by the U.S. holiday.

Dates of observance fluctuated, sometimes coinciding with the U.S. Thanksgiving or the Canadian veteran-appreciation holiday, Remembrance Day—and at least once it occurred as late as December.

But Canada’s colder climate eventually led to the 1957 decision that formalized the October date.

Thanksgiving is an annual holiday celebrated by a fairly large number of Americans.  It’s usually marked by an oven-roasted turkey, golden corn, a hot apple pie and warm family gatherings.  We’ve all heard the myth of why we celebrate Thanksgiving; the Pilgrims settled in New England, and after a long, unusually harsh winter, celebrated with the Native Americans by sharing with each other fresh crops and warming hearts with honest thanks.  Thanksgiving has become a day where we recall this myth as we sit around our dining room tables with our families, reminding each other to ‘be thankful’ for what we can call our own.  Then we over-indulge our gluttonous desires with comfort foods and feel the effects of tryptophan take over our bodies…

In recent years, I’ve began to wonder: is Thanksgiving really celebrating the coming-together of Pilgrims and Native Americans in a fun, heartwarming feast of thanks and wonder?  Given the bloody, genocidal past of United States’ history, I became skeptical and decided to investigate.

Many Americans (particularly those white Americans in power…those who rewrite American history and create capitalist Hallmark holidays) believe in the myth of Thanksgiving and give it no second thought as they generously help themselves to Betty Crocker mashed potatoes.  They probably prefer to keep it that way, as is seen generation after generation of school children who come home from school with their paper turkeys, eager to tell their parents about how wonderful the Pilgrims were for inviting the Indians to join them in a feast of thanks giving.  What’s the harm in ruining this tradition of false teachings and beliefs?

The truth of the matter is: the first Thanksgivings were celebrations of victory by the white man who mercilessly slaughtered nations of Native Americans in their conquest of what is now the United States.  In their mission to fulfill Manifest Destiny, the white man wiped out thousands and thousands of Native peoples, audaciously celebrating each bloody scalping, murder, and rape by having feasts on their newly stolen land, over the dead bodies of their victims.  The truth of the matter is: following the mass genocide of Native Americans solely at the hands of the white man on a rampage to spread white supremacy, the white man (as capitalist history writers) needed a way to make what they have done appear not so bad.  They needed something to cover up their massacres and make them the heroes in the end.  Thus came the invention of Thanksgiving as we know it today: a Hallmark holiday and family tradition in which the kid-friendly version of Thanksgiving’s origin thrives and fools Americans into blindly celebrating mass genocide.

*Above:  A Thanksgiving Prayer by William S. Burroughs.  Dir. by Gus Van Sant.

Some light fare and portentous quotes for the Holiday.  Remember to tip your waiters and enjoy your parade.

Also, if you are feeling really “thankful” today, try donating some time/money/help to Black Mesa Indigenous Support.  Maybe your Grandma would like a Navajo Rug.  Maybe she would rather shit in the blood of our ancestors.  I don’t know the woman.  But when we build our houses with the bones of our progenitors, it is good to pay tribute, lest the ghosts of those we have wronged hunger for flesh of the living.  Just sayin’.

Thanksgiving Day, a function which originated in New England two or three centuries ago when those people recognized that they really had something to be thankful for – annually, not oftener – if they had succeeded in exterminating their neighbors, the Indians, during the previous twelve months instead of getting exterminated by their neighbors, the Indians.  Thanksgiving Day became a habit, for the reason that in the course of time, as the years drifted on, it was perceived that the exterminating had ceased to be mutual and was all on the white man’s side, consequently on the Lord’s side; hence it was proper to thank the Lord for it and extend the usual annual compliments.

::Mark Twain::

Turkey: A large bird whose flesh, when eaten on certain religious anniversaries has the peculiar property of attesting piety and gratitude.

::Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary::

Got no check books, got no banks.  Still I’d like to express my thanks – I got the sun in the morning and the moon at night.

::Irving Berlin::

To Demeter Eleusinia. O universal mother, Deo famed, august, the source of wealth, and various named: great nurse, all-bounteous, blessed and divine, who joyest in peace; to nourish corn is thine. Goddess of seed, of fruits abundant, fair, harvest and threshing are thy constant care. Lovely delightful queen, by all desired, who dwellest in Eleusis’ holy vales retired. Nurse of all mortals, who benignant mind first ploughing oxen to the yoke confined; and gave to men what nature’s wants require, with plenteous means of bliss, which all desire. In verdure flourishing, in glory bright, assessor of great Bromios [Dionysos] bearing light : rejoicing in the reapers’ sickles, kind, whose nature lucid, earthly, pure, we find. Prolific, venerable, nurse divine, thy daughter loving, holy Koure [Persephone]. A car with Drakones yoked ‘tis thine to guide, and, orgies singing, round thy throne to ride. Only-begotten, much-producing queen, all flowers are thine, and fruits of lovely green. Bright Goddess, come, with summer’s rich increase swelling and pregnant, leading smiling peace; come with fair concord and imperial health, and join with these a needful store of wealth.

::Orphic Hymn 40 to Demeter (trans. Taylor) (Greek hymns C3rd B.C. to 2nd A.D.) ::

.

“Security is mostly superstition. It does not exist in nature.”
- Helen Keller

We want to feel safe, and it’s good and healthy for us to have relationships and home space in which we do. But, it can be limiting to require a perfect sense of security everywhere we go. Life is uncertain, and much of what we get to do with our lives is make decisions about how to best manage risks-not avoid them! Each day we get out of bed, we begin our interaction with risk. Once we accept that complete security is a myth, we can face life more honestly, viewing it as an unpredictable adventure. Instead of trying to control our lives, we can explore them!

A year ago, Dispatches told the story of how children in Africa’s Niger Delta were being denounced by Christian pastors as witches and wizards, and then killed, tortured or abandoned by their own families. Following the introduction of the Child Rights legislation and an increase in financial support for a British charity providing a refuge for affected youngsters, the programme returns to find out what happened to some of the people featured in the first film.

How religion/superstition poisons everything, religion must die, all gods are fake, get over it.
You may think your christianity/religion is different.. but it’s not, it’s still terrorizing minorities, it’s still taking your money, controlling you, it’s still killing and causing wars. .. it’s still making a fool of you, a cancer on humanity.
In USA ~300 children have lost their life in recent years because parents did rely on faith healing bs, exorcism has killed many… the Vatican and the pope has an army of exorcists… imagine that, imagine that.
(1/5)

Via Atheistmedia

Play all <—+

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Minutiae can be, and are, overlooked and imagined to be of little or no importance. I must say that, independently, this is probably true. However, the aggregated effect of these minor details can be quite large.

Picking up on small things is usually the domain of the pedant – the annoyance drawn from small language errors – such as the use of the word ‘enormity‘ as if it referred to size, ‘eccetera’ instead of et cetera, or ‘none of them are’ as opposed to ‘none of them is‘ – are banal and, in truth, this grievance lends itself to intellectual vanity more than anything.

In matters more ’serious’- and I use that term lightly – it can have an effect on your everyday life, and possibly your emotional well-being. For example, many people will go to a public toilet, take a piss, and rinse their hands under a cold (or warm) tap, dry them on their trousers/using a towel/using an automatic dryer – the effect is the same: none. If one’s hands are dirty, (Churchill’s famous retort after not washing his hands comes to mind – after being told by a colleague ‘In Eton, they teach us to wash our hands’, Churchill fired back: ‘In Harrow they teach us not to piss on our hands!’) then by adding water you actually worsen the problem, because handling the dirty faucet/door handle, you have given new bacteria a medium in which to multiply. Soap dissolves the oil ’sebum’ on your skin, which washes away the resident bacteria – without the emulsifying effect, they remain. It’s counter-intuitive, but it harks back to an ignorance or denial about microbes/pathogens. People with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) often over-compensate and are illogically fastidious in their washing (often using a bar of soap for each wash). But if you know this ‘minute’ detail, it can affect your behaviour.

Another example of this is the myth that reading in the dark/excessive reading is ‘bad’ for your eyes, or causes them damage. It doesn’t. There is no evidence that it does – so how did it become such a prevalent lie? Of this, of course, no one can be sure, just like the old lie told to children about the wind changing and making faces (though I suspect this was to save a parent embarrassment of having their weird child exposed!) However, reading a computer screen in a dark room is found to have adverse effects.

Antibiotic resistance is a real medical quandary – parents feed their children antibiotics, which means the child does not develop vital antibodies to fight infection later on in life – antibiotics are merely chemicals secreted by bacteria that are poisonous to other kinds of bacteria. When a bacterium mutates, it often becomes immune to the chemical previously used – so the patient must use yet another type and so on. This means that if I (or any other person who wasn’t molly-coddled as a child) get a nasty dose of infection and I go to use a standard antibiotic, I find it has become immune to it because unlearned, overprotective and media-controlled termite-mothers have ‘poisoned the well’ so to speak by over-indulging their child. It is a serious problem – there are only so many antibiotics! I have often heard ignorant, patently uneducated people speaking about giving their child antibiotics for a cold or flu. To anyone with a remote knowledge of biology, this causes one’s gears to grind very badly. Viruses are impervious to antibiotics – as they are not alive.

Another annoying ‘minor’ detail that is evident in everyday life, especially in winter, is the myth that ‘80%’ or some such ridiculous figure, of body heat is lost through the head – so basically if you wear a hat, you’re golden. This is a ridiculous nonsense piece of illogic – how do people believe it?

Now another piece of information that escapes people may seem from the outset to be quite ‘minute’, but on understanding a small piece of information, the person’s worldview may change. This particular ‘gripe’ I have refers to the question often asked by evolution-deniers as well as by people who claim to support it – without the remotest understanding, despite its all-encompassing importance. The question goes something like this: ‘If we evolved from apes, why are chimps and gorillas still around?’. Usually, on hearing this, a furious wrath descends on me, but quickly clears. The reason is, of course, that we did not evolve from chimps or gorillas – we share a common ancestor (as we do with all animals) going back a certain period of time (4 million years or so) It seems like a small point, but it is VERY important. Also, we did not evolve from Neanderthals. That is a myth.

Speaking of tiny differences, the fact that people claim to be sectarian (or don’t but are nonetheless) don’t realize the nuanced difference between different sect of their religion (as in the tiny differences between catholics and protestants, and the very tiny differences within the protestant faith – baptist,methodist,lutheran etc.) If people would actually read the doctrines they wouldn’t bother fighting.

Probably to most people, all of the aforementioned details are seen as obvious. You would be surprised though. It is the accrued of the above and many, many other ’small’ details that can have a real effect on people’s everyday behaviour. Just as someone with knowledge of endocrinology might roll with the punches of depression or ‘the fear’ a little better!